Cryptocurrency exchange theft surges in first half of 2018: report

Losses could rise to 1.5 billion this year

Theft of cryptocurrencies from exchanges soared in the first half of this year to three times the level seen for the whole of 2017, leading to a three-fold increase in associated money laundering, according to a report from U.S.-based cybersecurity firm CipherTrace released on Tuesday.

The report, which looks at the global anti-money laundering market, showed that in the first six months of the year a total of $761 million was stolen from digital currency exchanges, compared with about $266 million for the whole of 2017.

The losses could rise to 1.5 billion this year, estimated CipherTrace, which is launching a software to help exchanges and hedge funds that use or trade cryptocurrencies comply with anti-money laundering laws.